WITH reference to the article in the Malvern Gazette (October 22), on changes by First to bus timetables.

When will this company realise the more it insists on changing the bus timetables the more the public will find alternative means of transport.

From what you read in the newspapers we in Malvern are not the only people to suffer cuts in timetables. I notice the would-be passengers in Worcester suffer the same.

Those given concessionary bus passes are the only people who use the buses these days and, with all the cuts, these bus passes will be of little use.

I understand First rely on subsidies to help to compensate the cheaper fares. Now the county council and other bodies which subsidise First will be able to reduce the amount payable as less people are travelling.

I would imagine it will also cost the bus company a small fortune in printing new timetables.

What we want in Malvern is to have our No 42 bus service reinstated as it was before all the changes made in June 2004.

First did supplement the No 42 bus service with the Flexilink bus twice a day along Madresfield Road. You need to be a mountaineer to climb aboard and if you have any shopping bags you need a sherpa to help you to get to a seat.

MR S DANIELS, Elmley Close, Malvern.